Filling the Gap
by Lafayette1777
Summary: Replacing House was never going to be easy. Suggested Chase/Park. No longer just a one-shot.
1. Challenged

**Author's note: A one-shot I thought of out of the blue. I didn't have a story that would make sense to fit it in with, but I wanted to post it anyway. Very cliched, possibly over dramatic. Reviews welcome!**

He knew she'd follow him.

He'd seen the anger on her face when he made his call, and they'd all just stayed sitting, because if they weren't gonna try it, then they had nothing to do but wait till the patient died.

But it was too risky. And they'd be liable, _when_ the patient, there wasn't really an _if_ about it, inevitably died.

He trusted her judgement. Usually without a second thought. But he was the head of the department. And he was not going to let his staff kill their patient. They were just a kid, after all, a very sick kid.

So he'd made the decision, and Taub had let out his breath, and Adams resignedly laid back in her seat, and Park clenched her jaw tight and pursued him into the office with his name on the door.

"You're not serious!" She very nearly exploded, shooting daggers at him as he let the file fall onto his desk. "We're just gonna sit there and not try anything?"

"You know the minute we cut into his skin he's going to bleed to death. Unless you can think of some way to fix him without cutting him open, then there's nothing we can do." He replied evenly.

"We can do it if we're careful! We have _a lot _of good surgeons at this hospital. You're one of them." It was hardly a compliment, the way she said it.

"We cannot be responsible for his death. Do you think his parents are gonna submit to some invasive procedure in what are probably gonna be the last few minutes of his life?" He could feel his own anger rising now, rising to match hers. She was in scrubs, soft pink ones. Her hair was mussed on one side.

"They will if you spin it right." She lowered her voice, ever so slightly. "We have to try, Robert."

He shook his head. "There's no point. He might not even survive through the prep, at this rate."

"But we have nothing to lose!" The pleading was gone, she was back to anger.

"Look, Park, I am not going to do this. End of discussion. And neither are you." Taub and Adams had come to watch, standing on the other side of the glass, in the conference room. They made no effort to hide their interest in the fight unfolding.

Losing the argument, she pulled the last weapon in her arsenal. It was cruel, and she knew it, bringing up such a touchy subject. But she was mad, not in the mood to pull punches, even for him.

"House would've done it." She muttered, just loud enough for him to hear.

She might as well have stabbed him in the heart. He snapped. "Well I'm not House!" His face was contorted in rage, venom dripped from every word. "None of us are. And if you don't like the way I'm running this department, you can get the hell out!"

He had injured her, just as she had injured him, moments before. She took an involuntary step back, her composure lost, her face unguarded. He regretted what he said. He didn't say anything to mend it.

"You're gonna kill him." She said, very quietly. "That kid's gonna die, and if he's not on operating table, then it's your fault anyway. Because you didn't try."

He said nothing, just looked at her, standing there with her arms crossed over her chest.

"I'll talk to the parents. I won't lie. They'll see that a chance, no matter how slim it may be, will be better than nothing. I'll do the surgery myself if I have to. But I'm not gonna sit around and let him die." Her jaw was set. He knew she'd do it, too.

They had reached an ultimatum. Both stood completely still, eye contact unbroken. They were unreadable to the two onlookers.

It was Chase who broke the gaze first. He turned his eyes down on his desk. He took the fall because he knew what would happen next if he didn't. Park's resignation would be on his desk by the next morning, he was sure.

Taking House's place was proving to be a constant headache.

House may have been, at times, a crazy son of a bitch. But he did most things for a reason. Chase didn't want to be like House. He didn't want to be a miserable jackass with only one true friend. But House had done some things right, and Park was not wrong in what he would've done now.

"Fine." Chase relented quietly. Park visibly relaxed.

"If this turns out to be a mistake," She said, "I'll make sure I get all the blame."

"That's nice of you, but it won't matter." He replied sullenly. "It was still my decision, or at least that's how the board's gonna see it."

He motioned to Adams and Taub and they entered his office.

"Adams, call OR four and tell them we're on our way. Taub, brief the parents. Make sure they know all the risks, and then get the patient over there as fast as possible."

"And me?" Park asked.

"You're coming with me to get cleaned up. You're gonna be in there with me when we do this surgery."

Taub and Adams rushed out to fulfill Chase's orders. Chase looked over the file one more time before heading for the door too. Park stopped him.

"Everything'll be fine." She tried to reassure.

"No," he replied. "it won't." _But it must be done anyway._

He brushed by her as he left. There was an unmistakable spark of electricity as their skin touched. Chase usually relished that feeling of connection with a woman. With Park, it just made him confused. He'd have to figure that out eventually, but for now he was preoccupied.

Park felt it too. She had a similar opinion. With no time to dwell on the last few minutes of raw words, she followed him in the direction of the OR, her usual scurrying run in competition with his graceful strides.


	2. Read

Park had been not-so-subtly avoiding him for three days.

It helped that they didn't have a new case yet; no reason to meet in the conference room. So she just had to look busy whenever he walked by her, or stare at her own feet when they got coffee at the same machine in the morning.

By the fourth day, Chase was sick of it.

When she passed his office some time in the mid morning, practically sprinting by with her head down, he was ready. He peeked half his body out the glass door, grabbed a firm grip on her forearm, and yanked her inside.

"Sit." he commanded, and she took the seat on the opposite side of his desk. Her face bore the look of carefully suppressed terror.

"So, we're just gonna avoid eachother until your contract's up?" He said.

She didn't reply.

"You can't just pretend like I don't exist."

"I dunno, I'm doing alright so far."

He paused. "We should talk about this."

"Okay. Please do."

He sighed. "Why? Do you feel guilty? Are you satisfied? You're impossible to read, you know."

"I'm not guilty about what happened, I'm sorry if you are."

"So you're satisfied?"

"I'm satisfied we did everything we could. But I wouldn't call 'satisfied' the overall feeling when your patient dies."

"Then why the hell are you avoiding me?"

"Because I yelled at you, and thought you'd be mad. Especially cause our patient died under your knife, and I told you to do it." For the first time, she met his eyes.

"I'm not mad," He said. "At least, not at you."

"That's good, cause I'm not apologizing."

"Tell me something, though." He continued. "If House had made the same call, would you've challenged him too?"

"House wouldn't had made that call." She said simply. "Neither would you, a few months ago."

He looked at his hands. Park was getting to him.

"I don't know if it was his death, or your knew position, or whatever the hell else is messed up with your life right now, but you're not the same Chase." She explained point blank. "You gotta get your head back in it, man." And it sounded strange, coming out of her mouth.

He'd known Park for barely a year, and she had read him perfectly. Furthermore, she actually cared to address it.

He looked up from his desk, met her eyes. She was almost expressionless.

He said nothing, so she got to her feet, and walked toward the door.

"Talk to you at lunch." She called over her shoulder, and was gone.

**Author's Note: You know how I said this was just gonna be a one-shot? Well, I lied. Harleyzgirl inspired me, so there will be one more chapter. Please review!**


	3. Saved

Respiratory distress always resulted in a flurry of activity by the attending physicians.

The throat was too tight, intubating wasn't an option anymore. She handed Chase a scalpel, and got to work on a tracheotomy. Park shoved the family out of the room, to the siren like beeping of the life support machines, reminding them of the lack of oxygen in the patients major organs.

"Got it." Chase said, and a nurse handed him the correct sized tube to stick into the now open trachea. A few seconds later, the oxygen stats were stable again.

Chase motioned for Park to follow as he left the patient. Taub and Adams were waiting for them in the conference room. Park wrote down the new symptom on the whiteboard while Chase paced about. Half an hour later, they had nothing to go on, and Chase had finally sat down.

"Aspergillosis?" Adams offered.

"Actually," Taub agreed. "That makes sense."

"Blood clot, jaundice and liver failure, the initial hallucination, the difficulty breathing...it fits." Park said.

"And there was mold under the sinks in the environmental check." Chase added. It made sense. "Start him on liposomal amphotericin B."

Adams and Taub headed off to administer the medication, but Park hung back.

She grabbed the marker and bent down to write on the white board. In bold, excited letters, she wrote:

_**Aspergillosis!**_

She circled it and put the cap back on the marker with a satisfying click.

Chase looked over at what she had done and raised an eyebrow.

"I wanted it to look complete." She explained.

Chase smiled to himself before grabbing the files and heading for his office.

"Are we still on for tonight?" She asked before he left.

"Of course."

m m m

Taub was up to his elbows in someone else's blood.

He figured it was about time he got someone to call his boss.

"Call Dr. Chase, please!" He yelled at a nurse over the sound of the heart monitor's screeching. "Tell him we have a new patient!"

The patient had come into the ER with a concussion, and had ended up with blood spewing from several orifices simultaneously, which was a universally bad sign.

Some swearing, drugs, blood transfusions, and a sheet changing later, Chase finally showed up, Park hurrying in behind him. Both were in street clothes.

"What happened?" Chase asked.

Taub showed him his now stained white coat and scrubs, hoping it was self explanatory. "It's gonna be really fun walking by the clinic in this."

Chase nodded absently, and found the necessary forms to make himself the new attending physician.

"Sorry," He told Park quietly.

"What? It's fine. We'll have other nights to go out, I'm sure."

"I hope so." He turned to Taub. "Adams around?"

"Don't think so, saw her leave a few hours ago." He raised a curious eyebrow.

"Did I just here you say you guys were out together?"

"Um..." Park looked at Taub's shoes, as though they may alleviate the awkwardness that had fallen on the trio.

"It's was, uh..." Chase tried to finish her thought, and failed.

"Right," Taub smirked. "Nevermind. I'll call Adams, meet you in the conference room."

Chase nodded, and once Taub had gone, turned to Park.

"I think we need a plan."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we can't keep this secret forever."

"Oh, right." Park bit her lip. "You're my boss. It'll look bad."

"It will. But Taub clearly knows, and who knows how long he'll keep his mouth shut."

"My bet is not long. And if he tells Adams, then we don't have a chance."

They headed down the corridor toward the elevators, and pressed the upward facing arrow. The doors opened after a few moments of them both locked in their own worried thoughts. When the doors opened, they found themselves alone, by some miracle.

"You know what?" Chase said, after a moment. "Who cares? I'm not going to break up with you because people know we're dating, no matter what they say behind our backs. Does it matter what they think?"

"I suppose not." Park replied, thinking that it sounded like something she would have said to herself in junior high. "So we go public?"

"Stay professional, but yes. No more sneaking around. Sound good?"

"No complaints here."

"Alright then." The elevator pinged, and the doors slid open.

Chase intertwined his fingers with hers, and lead her toward the conference room.

**Author's Note: That's the end. This story is dedicated to everyone reviewed, favorited, or alerted, especially Harleyzgirl. Thanks!**


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